


Love like you [On Hiatus]

by NakkusaurusRex



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst and Feels, Blood and Injury, Drinking, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Gem/Human Relationships (Steven Universe), I'm Bad At Summaries, I'm Bad At Tagging, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Not Canon Compliant, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Please Don't Kill Me, Reader-Insert, Smoking, Tags May Change
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-30
Updated: 2020-04-06
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:00:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23397403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NakkusaurusRex/pseuds/NakkusaurusRex
Summary: You've been living in Beach City since you were 16, and now being 20 you meet this kid called Steven and his family of...weird gem ladies? (Plus his dad, a man that lives in a van)You have a bad start with the gem called Pearl, but maybe with some time...who knows what could happen next?Also Steven Universe and the gems don't belong to me! They do to Rebecca Sugar (as we all know)
Relationships: Connie Maheswaran/Steven Universe, Pearl (Steven Universe)/Reader
Comments: 8
Kudos: 50





	1. Introduction

* * *

Hello! It's me NakkusaurusRex (or just Nakku for short!)

This is a small intro for the story I'm gonna be writting, to point out a few things about it and explain a bit of how the story is going to work with the canon story.

This is a female reader insert story so the she/her pronouns will be used. 

(Y/n) is Your Name

(L/n) is Last Name, but it won't be used a lot in the story (maybe a couple of times)

(H/c) is hair color and (E/c) is eye color 

This story is supposed to be happening after Jasper and Lapis fuse and go missing, yes it will be mentioned, but all the cluster/Peridot thing and diamond stuff won't be.

It'll be more centered around how your bond with Pearl grows as the story progresses (since she basically doesn't like you when the two of you meet) 

There will also be blood and injury mentions in some of the chapters, but not like super Gore. I'll also include some "past parental abuse" but not really explicit. Don't worry I'll put a warning just in case, I don't want to trigger bad memories if you've suffered this kind of abuse.

The character of (y/n) also smokes and drinks from time to time (it's kind of important for the story)

I don't think I have anything left to add, if I have I'll just edit this.

I hope you like the story, I'll try my best to write and update the story as much as I can!

[Alright Edit time]

I had chapter 1 ready and posted, but it somehow appeared as a draft, I don't know why so I tried to somehow fix it but it ended up publishing half of the original draft and erasing the chapter itself, so I'll have to write it again from where I left it off yesterday. I don't think it'll take long, apologies for the mistake.


	2. 1. Meeting Steven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> (Y/n) meets Steven and his bird caretaker- I mean...Pearl

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, this is the good chapter 1 that I had to re-do since it got erased by accident.

* * *

It was a nice morning on Beach City, people chatting around with their friends or even loved ones, and you were...getting kicked out of a store.

"I'm asking you to leave this place, don't make me repeat myself...again" the manager of the local store told you for what could have been the fourth time this morning.

"Dude I told you, just give sell me the lighter and I'll go" you told the man with your hand in the pockets of your black jacket.

"You are not welcome in here and you know that, now leave before I call the police" he said remembering the fight that had taken place on the small store a month ago, a guy had provoked you and perhaps you had punched him on the face a bit to hard.

Having enough of the man, you sighed and went to the door "fine I'll leave" you spat out and walked out of the store still mad for not getting the lighter you so desperately needed to satisfy your needs at the moment.

Walking around the streets you fixed your eyes on another store, it was a bit bigger than the one you had previously visited so the chances of getting a nice lighter and maybe some food to fill your stomach were really high.

Just as you were about to enter, a short kid with curly hair bumped into you and fell to the ground "ouch..." he said and rubbed his butt after getting up, you looked down at him "sorry 'bout that, didn't see you there" he said and smiled.

"No problem, you wanted to go in?" you asked the boy, he went through the open door and began to look around for things, you followed after him walking around the store searching for a cool lighter to buy for yourself.

Your eyes landed on a white one that had a red chinese dragon printed on it, you picked it up and checked the price, it wasn't too expensive so you decided to get it.

The boy was looking at some cheeto puffs with what seemed to be stars in his eyes...literally, but his joy was cut short when he checked his pockets for money and only found a crumbled up paper and a bottle cap.

You could just ignore him and pay for your thing but he looked so sad about not getting those...

"Get them, I'll pay for it" you told the boy looking down at him, his eyes lit up and he practically launched himself at you to give you a hug "thank you!" the boy said and grabbed the bag bringing it to the counter of the shop.

The lady smiled and you while scanning both of the items "that would be 3.50" she said, you gave her five bucks and then put the change in your wallet, the boy happily grabbed his bag.

Going outside of the store you grabbed a cigarette from it's pack and put it between your lips lighting it, you leaned your back against the wall of the store and exhaled the smoke relaxing for a bit.

The sound of the kid munching his cheese flavored snacks brought you back to reality, you looked down at your left, the boy was looking at you while eating "what?" you asked him, smoke coming out from your mouth.

"I'm Steven Universe, what about you?" the boy said looking at you while smiling, he looked like a nice kid, probably the kind of person to be friends with anybody he meets. 

He probably wanted to be your friend too...weird considering how you always left a bad first impression on people when you met them, but hey, things change right?

"The name's (y/n)" you said exhaling the smoke to your right, he looked confused for a second "what's your last name?" Steven asked tilting his head a little, you weren't going to give him an explanation, what were the chances of seeing him again after today?

"I don't use one, I just never liked it that much" you said shrugging, it was clear that you wanted to avoid the topic of the conversation, you always had hated talking about this.

"Hey by any chance...is your father called Greg, from the car wash?" you asked the boy, his father was the one that cleaned the boss's car sometimes. You went a couple of times to make sure that it was in a perfect state and that nothing was out of place, he didn't even pay you extra for that.

He nodded with enthusiasm "yeah, that's him" he said and laughed a little, now you knew who he got the personality from, you could tell that Greg was a nice dad...even though he lived in his van.

"Do you know the gems too?" Steven asked munching on his cheetos without a care in the world, you made a confused face at him, who were the gems? You've never heard of them before, and you've been living here for the past four years.

"No idea of who they are" you said and took a drag of the cancer stick between your lips, the boy gasped in surprise "you don't know about them?!" he asked not believing what you had just said.

Shaking your head you looked at your right and noticed a police officer walking around 'shit...' you thought and stopped leaning on the wall from the shop, you stretched a bit and started to walk, Steven walking after you as fast as his short legs could go.

"Hey wait up" he said catching your attention, but you didn't turn around to look at him and kept waking to the docks, where today there weren't any ships in sight. He threw the empty bag in a trashcan and went to your side.

"Shouldn't you be on your way home?" you asked him sitting down on a bench and flicking off the burnt ash from the cigarette between your fingers, Steven sat down and looked at the far left side of the beach where rests of the spaceship were still present.

"You see all those green pieces? They are what's left of a gem spaceship that crashed here two days ago" the curly haired boy explained pointing at them.

"Who are those gems anyway? Some kind of...weird cult to rocks?" you asked the boy, who laughed at your silly question "not really, let me explain it to you...with a song" Steven said and took out his phone, he put some music and started to sing about who the Crystal Gems were.

"And Steven!" the curly haired boy exclaimed doing a small jump in the ground with his arms open, he sat down again "what did you think?" the boy asked, it was quite amusing to see Steven dance around mimicking the gems he had mentioned in the song.

"It was good, I'd actually pay to see you do that again" you told the boy while laughing, the butt of your cigarette forgotten on the ground having already finished it's purpose. 

A few moments later a woman walked towards both of you and upon noticing Steven she smiled and quickened her pace, but as she saw you talking to him, it got replaced by a frown.

"Steven!" she exclaimed catching the boy's attention, he got up from the bench and hugged her "hey Pearl" he said smiling, she looked at you with what seemed to be something between disapproval and anger.

"Who is this...woman?" the pale gem asked eyeing you up and down and putting a protective arm in front of Steven, you had no idea of why she did that and it honestly pissed you off.

"She's (y/n), she bought me some snacks because I didn't have any money and-" "she did what?!" Pearl exclaimed interrupting the curly haired boy, who was now looking at Pearl with a confused look.

"Steven she could've kidnapped you!" the pale gem said looking at him "wait what?! I'd never do that" you said with an evident frown on your face, the nerve she had to say that.

"Pearl this is just a misunderstanding, she's a nice person" the boy said grabbing the gem's arm, she didn't stop glaring at you though, "go back to the temple Steven, Garnet's made sure it's safe for the time being" she said, the kid turned around with a sad look and went back to his home.

"I get that you are one of those Crystal Gems and you're the protectors of the city and all that jazz but that's not a reason to judge people based on their looks" you told her putting your hands inside of your pockets.

"Excuse me?! Your looks literally scream danger and bad reputation, I don't want any of that for Steven" Pearl exclaimed pointing at you with her finger. She was getting on your nerves and it hadn't even been ten minutes since she had arrived.

You were tired of her already and checked the time on your phone 'huh...It's almost time to work' you thought and then returned the phone to it's place in the back pocket of your dark blue jeans. You turned around to leave the docks, you had no business there left anyway.

"And where do you think you're going?!" Pearl exclaimed watching you walk towards the city, you didn't bother to answer her and just kept going forward.

Remember when I said that your first impression on people was usually bad? This is exactly what I meant

* * *


	3. 2. Troublemaker

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After work, (y/n) and Pearl see each other again and things get a bit violent between the two of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's some blood on this one but not a lot.
> 
> Also I know that Ocean Town's incident is supposed to happen later in the show, but it's for the story.

* * *

Just as you left the docks, a black car pulled up in front of you, the tinted window from the front seat was lowered and you could see Rian's face "get in the car, we're gonna be late" the dark eyed man said.

He had a deep voice that usually caught people off guard when they first met him but you were already used to him since you've known the man since you were seventeen.

Opening the door to the front passenger seat you plopped down on it and closed the door waiting for Rian to drive off "what are you waiting for?" you asked him looking at your left "the seat belt" the dark eyed man said in a bored tone.

"Sorry, it's a habit" you said and fastened the seat belt, Rian drove a bit faster than usual but it probably was to avoid the boss's wrath when he saw you arrive at the building.

He was driving to Ocean Town, it was in Delmarva but almost no one lived there anymore because of an incident that had happened a couple of years ago.

It was mostly populated by shady people that gained money from...some activities that aren't deemed as exactly legal.

A few rich men stand at the top of the food chain and provide a lot of money to make things work, then there are the businesspeople, they are the ones in charge of keeping everything and everyone in their place (some of them also have their own small businesses inside of the mob, like your boss for example)

You work for one of them so you are considered part of the _"lucky_ _workers"_ as they call them. After that there are the lowlifes that get what they can out of your profits.

The travel was quiet, and after the vehicle had stopped in front of the familiar building you undid the seat belt and got out "I'll see you later" the dark haired man said from his seat and drove off again to park the car.

Sighing you went to the front door of the building and greeted the man standing there, he knew who you were and let you in without any questions.

"Just in time (y/n)" your boss Mr. Collins said looking at you with his dark brown eyes, he was wearing his usual attire consisting of a dark blue polo shirt, jeans and expensive looking shoes, no jacket this time.

You recognized the other two men next to him, they were the bosses of high ranking fighting clubs, which meant that today's match was an important one, you could make a lot of cash out of this one.

"It's a pleasure to finally see the famous (y/n) in person, 720 victories and 0 defeats right?" the man in the left said with a hand out to shake yours, that's right, you've been on a winning streak for 3 years.

You firmly shook his hand "I'd stay to chat but I have to prepare myself" you said excusing yourself from the small group and going to the changing rooms, dressing in your normal attire for the fights which consisted in a simply pair of grey baggy shorts and a black tank top to go with them.

You fixed your hair so it wouldn't bother you and covered both of your hands with the red hand wraps that Rian had gifted to you one day. Going out of the room you walked through the hallway of the building towards the entrance of the room used for the fights.

"Ladies and gentlemen from all over Beach City!" the announcer said in his mic getting people's attention, they were sitting in high quality benches provided by one of the rich men that were interested in the fighting business.

"In today's fight we have our local champion (y/n) at our right!" the man exclaimed pointing at you, the public started cheering and clapping, they were sure that all the cash they had bet yesterday was going to be money well spent.

"And to our left, a famous wrestler from Empire City...Terry!" the announcer exclaimed, the public gave the blond man the same treatment as they did to you before, he looked excited about the fight.

Taking a fighting stance, you both waited until a small ring was heard, that was the cue to start. You spent the first seconds observing how the guy moved, dodging a couple of punches to your right.

Terry and you kept on going for a few more minutes, he was a good opponent and decided to fight without cheating like some of the previous people you had encountered did.

Since these kind of fights and bets were illegal you could do anything to win, the only rule was that no weapons were allowed, and thankfully Terry was a legal guy (in the sense of the word of course)

The blond when to punch you but as his fist was approaching you ducked dodging the punch and jabbed him in the stomach with great force, he stumbled backwards and fell to the floor knocked out. Ten seconds passed and you had another victory added to the record.

_~Small Timeskip~_

You went out of the room after a small shower and dressing up on your former clothes, you met the boss in the hall "you did a great job out there, expect a small raise in your next paycheck" Mr. Collins said looking at you with a small smile, you gave him a nod and left the building.

You took a bus back to Beach City, the ride was calm since people tried to avoid you when the could...you didn't have the best of the reputations around the place.

After arriving at your destination you walked down the street and saw the boy from earlier this morning "hey Steven" you said walking up to him, Steven turned around and waved at you "hey (y/n)" he said and looked up at you while smiling.

"What's up?" you asked him looking around wondering if the gem from earlier was still somewhere near "Pearl and I are here to prepare some things for the concert tomorrow" the boy explained 'so she's still around, how nice' you thought frowning on the inside.

Said gem appeared soon after, eyes widening for a moment when she saw you near the curly haired boy again "you again?!" the pale gem exclaimed walking up to you.

"I could say the same thing about you, Curlew" you told her in a mocking way "you didn't just say that" Pearl said angrily, her hands balled into fists at her sides, Steven looked at both of you "uh...girls?" he said getting a bit nervous.

"Oh, I did" you said with a small smirk gracing your lips, that did it for Pearl, her gem glowed for a second and she reached her hand. A spear appearing in her hand "I won't warn you again" she said in a menacing tone.

"You wanna fight then? Sure, let's do it" you said and got in the usual position for when you fought against your opponents at work. The gem wasn't going to back off a fight even though Steven was trying to get you two to talk about it.

The fight went on for a couple of minutes, you both were at the same level even though the gem was probably holding back.

Stumbling back you blocked Pearl's spear with the back of your left forearm, it pierced through the jacket and skin, the tip of it stabbing into the arm.

The gem moved the weapon to the left in a harsh way making a gash on your forearm, blood started to drip from the fresh wound onto the ground. You hear Steven gasp from where he was standing, ignoring the burning sensation coming from your arm, you threw a punch at Pearl and hit her.

She took a couple of steps back leaving you a chance to give her a low sweep kick, the gem fell on her back with a grunt, the weapon falling out of her hand and disappearing. You stood there and gripped your bleeding arm hissing slightly when you touched it.

The curly haired boy got between you and the gem to prevent anything else from happening "that's enough!" Steven exclaimed, you adverted your gaze away from him and the pale gem got up from the ground.

The kid looked at you before speaking up "let me see your arm, I can heal-" "it's not necessary Steven" you told him, it came out more rude than what what you had expected, but you couldn't help it, the gem had gotten in your nerves.

Steven looked at you a bit concerned before the Crystal Gem stepped in slighty glaring at you.

"I think it'd be better if you left" Pearl said, you would've said something to her but you had already done more than enough fighting against the gem in the middle of the street. So you decided to turn around and go look for a cab that could take you to the hospital.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to update this yesterday but I had to do an assignment and couldn't finish the chapter in the way that I liked.


	4. 3. Secret Friendship

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steven and (y/n) agree on being friends without Pearl knowing about it.

* * *

Successfully stopping a cab and sitting on one of the back seats you spoke to the driver telling him where you needed to go, he nodded and drove off to the desired destination. 

You kept applying some pressure to your arm so it wouldn't bleed a lot, you did a mental note of being careful about the spear if a fight started against the gem in the future.

The cab arrived at the parking lot of the hospital, you tried to get a hold of your wallet to pay the man but it was a bit difficult not getting it stained, somehow you managed to get out the money and gave it to him "keep the change" you said getting out of the vehicle.

Going inside the building you walked over to one of the front desks, after a short chat the receptionist told you sit down and wait until your doctor arrived.

After a few minutes Dr. Maheswaran walked into the room and saw you "let's go, shall we?" the woman said and you got up following her through the halls until her office was in sight.

Upon entering said room she motioned you to sit on the exam table while she put on some of those disposable gloves that doctors used all the time. She gathered the needed material from a cabinet and left it on your left side.

You took off your jacket and left it at your right "tell me how this happened, it's not usual for you to come here with these kind of wounds" the doctor said while cleaning the gash, you hesitated for a few seconds thinking about how to explain what happened.

"I got...into a fight" you confessed, the doctor looked up at you "did you have problems at work again?" she asked, there was slight concern in her voice "oh no no, it was on the street this time" you answered the doctor. 

"It's going to need some stitches" she said going to grab the thread used for this procedures, a needle and a syringe "this is just so it doesn't hurt" the woman said probably noticing your face when seeing the item in her hand. You weren't the biggest fan of the pointy devils.

You decided to look the other way while she worked on it, and after the doctor had finished she bandaged the now closed injury, you grabbed your jacket but didn't put it on.

"You can take off the bandage tomorrow, make sure the stitches don't get hit, and don't pull them out, come back next week to see if they are ready to be removed" the woman said while writing in a paper a few things "also, don't strain that arm, it could open the wound" she added giving the paper to you.

'I can't go to work?! I'll have to call Rian later...' you thought alarmed while folding the paper and putting it inside one of the pockets from your jeans "don't hesitate to call me if you have any complications" the doctor added before you left the room.

It was getting late and the sun was going down, but you decided to go back walking even if it took a long while.

~[ _Next Morning_ ]~

You woke up, on the couch. And an empty bowl of what seemed to be Mac n Cheese leftovers on the coffee table next to it. 

Great, just great. It wasn't the first time it happened though so you got up after stretching and cleaned the mess off the table leaving it in the sink of the kitchen.

You went to your room upstairs and grabbed some clean clothes, taking a shower now sounded just about right, you just needed to make sure the stitches didn't get wet.

After finishing you sat on your bed and got your phone, Rian didn't pick up his though. Sighing you went back downstairs and sat on the couch to maybe watch some TV, but someone knocked at your door.

You just hoped it wasn't your neighbor Mrs. Adley, you loathed that woman with all your being, and it was a mutual feeling, probably the only thing you had in common with that woman.

To your surprise, you saw the boy from yesterday, how did he get your address anyway?

"Steven?" you asked surprised to see the boy, he was holding a rectangular box with a small note on top "hey (y/n) I just wanted to see if you were doing alright after what happened yesterday" Steven explained looking at you with a sad smile.

"Oh, why don't you come in and take a seat?" you asked and let him into your house, closing the door after the him. The curly haired boy sat on your couch and left the box on the table "do you want anything to drink? I think I have a can of soda somewhere in my fridge" you asked him going into the kitchen.

"Oh just water is fine" the boy said looking around the room, you came back with the drink and set it on the table "how did you know where my house was?" you asked him sitting down next to the kid.

"Garnet told me, she has future vision you know?" he said like it was the most normal thing in the universe "oh, and why would any of her visions include my house?" you asked looking at the boy with a confused face.

"I can't tell you, or it might not happen" Steven answered drinking some water, well that was weird. "How's your arm doing?" the boy asked looking at the bandage "it's fine, I had to get some stitches but don't worry too much about it ok?" you told him ruffling his hair.

"I'm sorry about what Pearl did, she's a bit more protective than usual after the whole Gem Spaceship thing, maybe if I had left when they told me to it wouldn't have happened" the boy said looking at the floor with sad eyes.

"Don't say that Steven, it wasn't your fault, I should apologize for what happened, you probably just wanted to have a good time with Pearl and I just..." 'ruined it, like I do everytime' you finished in your head, you don't want him to feel any worse for trying to be a good friend.

"Pearl needs to apologize too, she shouldn't have done that either" the boy paused for a couple of seconds "I have an idea!" he exclaimed with a big smile on his face.

"There's a concert today at 5pm on the beach, you could come and then try to talk with her, I'll just tell Mr. Smiley that you are my friend so you can go for free" Steven said, was he going to do all that just so the gem and you were in good terms? 

"It's a good idea actually, I'll go but you can't tell Pearl or else who knows what could happen" you told the kid "so it's like a...secret friendship?" he said whispering the last two words with stars on his eyes.

"If you want to call it that, yeah why not?" you told him smiling, after the chat he went back to his house to plan how the conversation at the concert should be.

After he left you looked at the box and read the note on top: "It's a gift to compensate for what happened yesterday, sorry if there are a few missing, Amethyst ate them" -Steven

It was a box of chocolates, they were from a cheap brand but a gift is still a gift, besides these tasted good and only four were missing from the box. You really hoped that his plan went well after all.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed it!


End file.
